Thursday: Sanchez had his surgery today, the Yankees announced. It was performed by team doctor Dr. Ahmad in New York and the Yankees say it went “as expected.” Get well soon, Gary.

Wednesday: Another important Yankee is having offseason surgery. Brian Cashman told reporters at the GM Meetings tonight that Gary Sanchez is having debridement surgery on his left shoulder, and he’s expected to be ready for Opening Day. The surgery comes with a three-month recovery, so it will cut significantly into Gary’s offseason routine. Sucks.

“We could continue with the conservative treatment and play it out, hope that it would get better, but we’re going to go the other route and just get ahead of it,” Cashman said (video link). “Downtime is three months. He’ll be ready to go obviously by Opening Day, I’ll say, instead of Spring Training even though (the timetable says) Spring Training. All systems should be go by Opening Day.”

Cashman said the shoulder has been bothering Sanchez since 2017, and he’s been able to play through it while receiving cortisone shots and other treatment. It’s still bothering him though — Cashman said Sanchez was in Tampa working out recently when he mentioned he still has discomfort — so they’re getting it repaired this winter.

Aaron Judge had surgery on his left shoulder last offseason, his front shoulder when hitting, and he showed no ill-effects this year. That said, it was a different procedure, so this isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Judge had arthroscopic surgery to remove a loose body. Sanchez is having damaged tissue removed from his shoulder.

Cashman said the Yankees are comfortable with Austin Romine behind the plate should Sanchez not be ready for Opening Day, but what’s he supposed to say? Even before Sanchez’s surgery, I expected the Yankees to look for an Erik Kratz type to stash in Triple-A with Kyle Higashioka. I guess they’ll look for someone like that with a little more urgency now.

The offseason is still young Sanchez is already the second Yankee having major surgery. Didi Gregorius will miss the start of next year with Tommy John surgery. Now Gary needs his non-throwing shoulder repaired. Gah. No more of these offseason injuries, please. Everyone stay healthy the next few months.

Coming into the 2018 season, nowhere else on the field did I think the Yankees would have a bigger advantage over their opponents than at catcher. The only catcher who I was comfortable assuming would outproduce Gary Sanchez this season was Buster Posey, and even that was a little up in the air.

The Yankees called Sanchez up for good on August 2nd, 2016, following their trade deadline purge. Here’s where Gary ranked among all catchers from that date through the end of the 2017 regular season (min. 400 plate appearances for rate stats):

AVG: .283 (sixth)

OBP: .357 (fourth)

SLG: .561 (first by 48 points)

wRC+: 140 (first by 13 points)

HR: 41 (first by seven)

XBH: 66 (tied for first)

There was a weird little narrative floating around Spring Training that said, despite all their high quality players, Sanchez was the Yankees’ best hitter. I never really bought into it (folks, Aaron Judge is really freakin’ good) but it wasn’t the craziest thing in the world, I don’t think. Now? Now it sounds silly.

Sanchez’s disaster 2018 season ended with a .186/.291/.406 (89 wRC+) batting line and 18 home runs in 374 plate appearances around a pair of groin-related stints on the disabled list. There have been 1,005 instances of a player batting 300 times in a single season for the Yankees. Gary’s .186 AVG is second lowest to someone named Red Kleinow (.168 in 1908).

I guess the good news is Sanchez did hit two homers in ALDS Game Two, which helped the Yankees even the series at a game apiece. That’s more than anyone other than Judge did in the series.

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Defensively, Sanchez again led the league in passed balls, this time committing 18 in 653 innings. Last year it was 16 in 881 innings. He struggled on both sides of the ball and was, hands down, the most disappointing Yankee in 2018. In fact, I’d call him the most disappointing player in baseball this year. Who else flopped so greatly after going into 2018 with such high expectations? I can’t think of anyone.

That the Yankees won 100 games despite Sanchez’s awfulness is a testament to their talent and depth and in no way absolves Gary. Who knows where the Yankees would’ve wound up had Sanchez played up to expectations? Let’s dig into Gary’s disaster season.

Power, But Little Else

I know everyone wants to talk about the defense and passed balls, but we’ll get to that in a moment. We have to start with the offense because Gary will forever be a bat first player, and this season he was terrible with the bat. You saw the overall batting line: .186/.291/.406 (89 wRC+) in nearly 400 plate appearances. The 18 homers salvaged things a bit — even with all the missed time, Sanchez still had the fifth most homers among catchers — but the AVG and OBP? Yuck.

Gary started the season slowly, going 2-for-36 (.056) with zero walks in his first nine games. He went on a six-week tear after that, hitting .292/.396/.681 (185 wRC+) with eleven home runs in 31 games from April 11st through May 21st. That was the Gary Sanchez everyone was expecting. After that though? Sanchez cratered and hit .151/.264/.285 (53 wRC+) in his final 49 games around the groin injuries. Gary’s season in graph form:

Throughout the season I saw two common explanations bandied about for Sanchez’s struggles: He chased out of the zone too much and he got too pull happy. Possible! Except Sanchez posted the lowest chase rate (33.1%) and lowest pull rate (51.1%) in his relatively brief big league career. That doesn’t mean Sanchez didn’t chase too often or get too pull happy at times — both those rates are above the league average (30.4% and 40.3%) — it just means this wasn’t as big a problem as it may have seemed.

One thing Gary continued to do this year, even while struggling, is hit the ball hard. Very hard. His 41.6% hard hit rate and 90.3 mph average exit velocity were both well above the 34.1% and 87.3 mph league averages, respectively. Sanchez managed a 90.3 mph average exit velocity and a .343 xwOBA. Seventy players posted an average exit velocity north of 90 mph this year while putting at least 200 balls in play. The bottom of the leaderboard:

Expected weighted on-base average, or xwOBA, is based on exit velocity and launch angle and things like that. It essentially tells us what a player would be expected to produce based on the quality of his contact. Sanchez hit the ball quite hard this year, yet his expected production was relatively low. Statcast has all sorts of neat batted ball breakdowns that help explain why.

Weak

Topped

Under

Flare

Solid

Barrel

2017 Sanchez

2.5%

31.0%

21.4%

26.5%

6.8%

11.8%

2018 Sanchez

2.6%

34.2%

26.8%

15.6%

6.9%

13.9%

MLB AVG

4.8%

34.4%

24.3%

24.9%

5.5%

6.1%

Here’s the full definition of a barrel. The short version: It’s the best possible contact. High exit velocity at an ideal launch angle. Sanchez, even this year, squares balls up at an extraordinarily high rate. More than double the league average, in fact. The 18 home runs and overall power production tell us Gary still made a lot of loud contact this year. When he squared a pitch up, he absolutely crushed it.

The biggest difference between 2017 Sanchez and 2018 Sanchez is that a lot of flares — those are balls that are not necessarily well struck, but do fall in for hits — were replaced by pitches Sanchez either topped or got under. You can hit a ball hard and still hit a grounder. A topped ball is a weak grounder. And getting under a pitch is, well, getting under a pitch. A pop-up or a routine fly ball. Replacing flares with topped pitches and getting under the ball is how you go from a .304 BABIP in 2017 to a .197 BABIP* in 2018 like Sanchez.

* Reliable stat keeping goes back far enough that there are 21,946 player seasons of at 300 plate appearances on record. Sanchez’s .197 BABIP is 33rd lowest among those 21,946 seasons. Insane.

The two disabled list stints probably didn’t help matters — including minor league rehab, Sanchez had 46 plate appearances from June 24th through August 31st — but my theory is Gary launch angled himself out of whack at the plate. I think he sold out for power and I think it got worse as the season went on. There were times it looked like Sanchez was trying to hit a five-run home run to make up for his entire season in one at-bat. I think he sold out for power, threw himself into a mechanical funk, then started pressing when he wasn’t having the season we all expected, and that made it all worse.

A few pieces of good news. One, Sanchez was still able to hit the ball hard. I’d be much more worried going forward if he wasn’t hitting the ball hard. The ability to drive the ball like few others is still in there. We saw it in the postseason. Two, Sanchez’s strikeout rate didn’t explode this year. He finished the year with a 25.1% strikeout rate, which is higher than last year (22.9%) but not outrageously so. A strikeout rate nearing or above 30% would’ve been worrisome.

And three, Sanchez really upped his walk rate this year. His 12.3% walk rate is far higher than last year’s 7.6% walk rate. Gary drew 40 walks (one intentional) in 525 plate appearances last year. He drew 46 walks (zero intentional) in 374 plate appearances this year. I don’t think there’s a physical deficiency here. It’s not like Sanchez lost strength. The adjustment this offseason figures to be more mechanical and more about approach.

“They were pitching me very tough throughout the whole season. They were executing very good pitches that were out of the strike zone, but I was swinging at them,” said Sanchez to Randy Miller a few weeks ago. “That’s one of the things that I want to work on in the offseason. Command the strike zone better. Be a more selective hitter.”

The Passed Ball Hysteria

I hate passed balls and wild pitches. I watch an embarrassing amount of baseball and it seems to me the official scorer is guessing half the time. I’ve seen pitches skip through the catcher’s legs be called wild pitches and pitches in the other batter’s box be called a passed ball. I am for combining passed balls and wild pitches into one “passed pitches” stat that gets assigned to both the pitcher and catcher. Takes all the guesswork out of official scoring. /end rant

Anyway, Sanchez allowed 18 passed balls (63 passed pitches) in 653 innings this year after allowing 16 passed balls (69 passed pitches) in 881 innings last year. He went from one passed pitch every 12.8 innings to one every 10.4 innings. That’s one extra passed pitch every four games or so. Sanchez’s blocking issues came to a head one night in Oakland in early September, when four passed pitches (two passed balls and two wild pitches, officially) got by him in the first inning.

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“I had a chance to stop all of them. I just didn’t do it,” Sanchez said after the game. “(Luis Severino and I) definitely had some trouble getting on the same page in the first inning. I would say there were some pitches there that I should have done a better job blocking or protecting them from going to the back.”

It’s easy to make excuses for Sanchez’s poor blocking. For starters, the Yankees have a pitching staff that isn’t easy to catch. The Yankees had the highest average fastball velocity (94.9 mph) and third highest average breaking ball spin rate (2,517 rpm) in baseball this year. That’s a lot of high-octane heaters and a lot of high-spinning breakers. Catching this pitching staff is not easy.

Secondly, MLB limited mound visits this season and that means fewer conversations — remember how often Sanchez visited the mound last year? — and thus greater potential for cross-ups. We saw a lot of them this year with Gary behind the plate. And third, pretty much every team is paranoid about sign-stealing this days and uses multiple signs with no one on. That also increases the chances of a cross-up and a ball getting by the catcher. I mean, look at the postseason. There seemed to be two or three balls getting by the catcher every game.

All of that should be considered when evaluating Sanchez’s blocking. Now, that all said, he is still really bad at it. People are quick to call Gary lazy the same way they were quick to call Robinson Cano lazy (gee, wonder what the connection is there) but, to me, this is a technique problem more than anything. For example, I have no idea what Sanchez is doing with his right leg here:

He does that all the time. Gary rarely drops to both knees to block pitches in the dirt, and instead leaves his five-hole wide open, and balls skips through. That has to be corrected. It won’t solve all of Sanchez’s passed ball issues — we’ve seen plenty of catchable pitches inexcusably clank off his glove — but it’ll help cut down on them, undoubtedly. The Yankees have three former catchers on the coaching staff (bench coach Josh Bard, catching coach Jason Brown, and assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere) and fixing that leg and improving Sanchez’s technique has to be a priority.

I suppose the good news is that, if you’re going to be (very) bad at something defensively as a catcher, blocking pitches a “good” thing to be bad at. Baseball Prospectus has detailed catcher defense stats and the best blocker (Tucker Barnhart) finished at +3.6 runs saved in 2018. The worst (Omar Narvaez) was at -4.6 runs. In one individual game, that extra 90 feet can be huge. Over the course of the season, blocking is not he most impactful thing in the game.

One-hundred-and-fifteen players caught in the big leagues this year, not counting Joe Mauer’s farewell pitch. Here’s where Sanchez ranks among those 115 catchers in BP’s various catcher defense metrics:

Framing: +3.3 runs (23rd)

Throwing: +0.2 runs (12th)

Blocking: -4.3 runs runs (114th)

Total Fielding: -0.9 runs (79th — this is everything above plus plays on pop-ups and grounders)

Kinda weird the throwing runs total is so low, isn’t it? James McCann led the league at +1.1 and Robinson Chirinos was last at -0.8. Huh. Well, whatever. (For what it’s worth, FanGraphs has Sanchez eighth with +2 throwing runs.)

These are counting stats, so Sanchez’s framing and throwing is hurt by the missed time while his blocking would’ve surely ranked last in the league had he played more. Point is, Sanchez is quite good at everything behind the plate except blocking. He frames well and he throws well, and the Yankees believe he calls a good game.

“I think he’s our best game-caller,” said Brian Cashman to Randy Miller a few weeks ago. “He shuts down the opposing team’s running game. And obviously, he’s a threat at the plate every pitch. So I think he’s by far our best option behind the plate for us.”

Gary stinks at blocking, and that’s kinda important, but it’s wrong to act like he offers nothing back there. He very clearly does. The throwing and framing are quite valuable. If you’re a believer in “pitcher performance with this specific catcher” stats, the pitching staff performed better with Sanchez (3.50 ERA and 93 OPS+) than either Austin Romine (4.06 and 104) or Kyle Higashioka (3.80 and 113) behind the plate this year. The Yankees have to help Gary improve his technique though. Whatever that is he’s doing with his right leg is costing him dearly.

What’s Next?

Not surprisingly, teams are already calling about Sanchez. They see an opportunity to buy low on a 25-year-old catcher with four years of team control who was the best hitter at the position a year ago. If Sanchez were on another team, we’d all want the Yankees to go out and get him. Catcher is an extremely hard position to fill and few backstops in the game offer Gary’s long-term potential.

A year ago at this time Sanchez looked to be on the cusp of superstardom. Now he’s more of a reclamation project. Sanchez has to get right at the plate, first and foremost. There are some approach and (likely) mechanical issues that need to be fixing. That’s most important. Gary also has to continue working on his blocking. That’s the missing piece defensively. An offseason trade is so very unlikely, meaning Sanchez will report to Tampa for Spring Training in a few weeks as the No. 1 catcher, and, after the season he just had, he’ll be under the microscope more than ever before.

MLB general managers are forever opportunists. Whenever they see the slightest advantage or the slightest shift in leverage, they’ll pounce. It is not surprising then that, following his miserable 2018 season, Gary Sanchez is already drawing trade inquires. Brian Cashman admitted as much during a recent radio interview.

“We know what he’s capable of doing,” said Cashman on Michael Kay’s show (video link). “And I’m already getting phone calls to be honest from clubs trying to knock on our door to see if he’s available. And he’s not … He will be our catcher.”

One one hand, Cashman has to say that. Even if the Yankees are open to trading Sanchez, they have to act like they aren’t to maintain negotiating leverage. On the other hand, Cashman wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t at least listen to trade offers for any player, including Sanchez and Aaron Judge and Luis Severino and everyone else.

To say a large portion of the fan base soured on Sanchez this summer would be an understatement. Gary authored a weak .186/.291/.406 (89 wRC+) batting line with 18 homers in 374 plate appearances, and he went from 16 passed balls (and 53 wild pitches) in 881 innings last year to 18 passed balls (and 45 wild pitches) in 653 innings this year. Yuck.

“A tough year,” Sanchez said to Randy Miller earlier this month. “A lot of ups and downs throughout the whole season. To me, not a good year based on my standards. Now we have to look forward to the offseason and work on all the things I want to improve for next year.”

I totally understand being frustrating with Sanchez. I feel the same way. But trading him this winter is crazy to me. I mean, I’d trade Gary for Mike Trout and a few other dudes, but realistically, I see no trade that makes sense. (I’ll believe the Mets will trade Jacob deGrom to the Yankees when I see it.) Just consider what the Yankees have here:

Sanchez is still only 25 and he’s under team control through 2022.

Since arriving for good in August 2016, Sanchez leads all catchers in wRC+ (126 wRC+) and is tied with Yasmani Grandal for the homer lead with 58. (Grandal has 202 more plate appearances.)

Since the start of the 2016 season, Sanchez is at +10 runs (DRS) or +5.4 runs (FRAA) defensively overall. So, pick the metric you trust, and there you go.

Baseball Prospectus’ pitch-framing stat has Sanchez at +11.7 runs since Opening Day 2016.

Did I mention he’s only 25? And that he’s under team control through 2022? Because Sanchez is only 25 and under team control through 2022. Think how terrible Gary was at the plate this year, and then consider he still leads all catchers in homers and wRC+ since August 2016. He was that far ahead of the pack. The gap between him and everyone else was enormous.

Of course Sanchez needs to improve his blocking — “That’s going to be a priority,” he said to Miller — but everything else he brings to the table defensively is really good. Framing, throwing, game-calling, it all works. And we know what Sanchez has the potential to do at the plate. We watched it all last year. Gary can still change a game every time he steps in the batter’s box …

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… and the number of catchers who can do that is very small. The solution to Sanchez’s incredibly disappointing 2018 season is not to trade him. The solution is continuing to have patience, and working with him to get better. Development is not linear. There are bumps in the road along the way and this season was a very big bump for Gary. No doubt about it.

Actions speak louder than words and, in the most important games of the season, the Yankees wanted Sanchez behind the plate. They didn’t want Miguel Andujar at third base, they consider his glove too much of a liability, but they wanted Sanchez behind the plate. They believe in him and they believe in his talent because they’ve already seen him produce at a star level. It’s in there. Now they have to figure out how to bring it back.

I want to thank everyone for being such great followers, fans and readers during this unforgettable record-breaking season. Hope you enjoyed all the smart stats, #FunFacts, Obscure Yankeemetrics and other interesting numbers. Let’s Go Yankees.

(Getty)

It’s Just Not Happ-ening
In the first-ever Division Series matchup between 100-win teams, the 108-win Red Sox took the series opener, 5-4.

It was another frustrating and winnable game for the Yankees, who struck out 13 times and left 10 men on base in the one-run loss. This was the ninth time in franchise history the Yankees lost a nine-inning postseason game by a run while stranding at least 10 baserunners — and the first time ever they also struck out more than 10 times in the game.

J.A. Happ, who had been so brilliant against Boston this season (1.99 ERA in four starts) and during his entire career (2.98 ERA in 21 games), was pounded early and pulled in the third inning without recording an out, getting charged with five runs on four hits. He is the first Yankee starter in the postseason to allow at least five runs and while pitching no more than two innings since A.J. Burnett in Game 5 of the 2009 World Series against the Phillies. Before Happ, no other pitcher in franchise history had done that in the opening game of a playoff series.

The Yankee chipped away at their early 5-0 deficit but their rally fell just short as Aaron Judge’s solo homer to lead off the ninth inning was followed by three straight strikeouts to end the game. The home run was a significant one for Judge, his sixth in 15 career postseason games. The only Yankee to hit more dingers in their first 15 playoff games was Bernie Williams (7).

Giancarlo Stanton was part of the strikeout parade in the ninth inning, and finished with four whiffs in the game. A Stantonian #NotFunFact to chew on: He is the only cleanup hitter in franchise history to strike out four or more times in a postseason game.

(AP)

The Kracken Erupts
The Yankees rebounded from Game 1’s bitter loss with a fired-up, fist-pumping win on Saturday night to even the series at 1-1.

They probably couldn’t have been in a better situational spot to steal a game at Fenway, facing David Price, a perennial Yankees punching bag with a historically terrible postseason resume. And both those narratives played out perfectly for the Yankees. Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez both crushed home runs while Andrew McCutchen chipped in with a booming RBI single, before Price got the hook and was booed off the mound in the second inning. The final damage for Mr. Price: 1 2/3 innings, 3 runs, 3 hits, 2 homers, 2 walks, 0 strikeouts.

Price has now made 10 starts in the postseason and his team has lost all 10 of them. That is the longest postseason streak of team games lost in a player’s starts in MLB history.

Okay, back to the Bombers. Judge’s first-inning solo homer was his third in three games this postseason. He is the second Yankee to go deep in each of the team’s first three games to start a postseason, along with Hank Bauer in the 1958 World Series. And he also joined Bernie Williams (2001, 1996), Reggie Jackson (1977) and Bauer as the only Yankee outfielders to homer in three postseason games in a row.

(New York Times)

Sanchez’s dinger off Price was probably the least shocking part of Saturday’s game. His brief history against the lefty speaks for itself:

18 plate appearances

7 hits

6 home runs

4 walks

But Price wasn’t the only Red Sox pitcher that got schooled by Sanchez on Saturday. He pulverized an Eduardo Rodriguez fastball literally out of the ballpark. With a projected distance of 479 feet, it is the longest hit at Fenway since Statcast tracking began in 2015 and the second-longest hit in the postseason at any park over the last four years.

With his two homers, he entered into some purdy good company. He and Yogi Berra (1956 World Series Game 7) are the only Yankee catchers with a multi-homer game in the playoffs. And, at the age of 25 years and 308 days, he is the youngest catcher to homer twice in a game in MLB postseason history.

Masahiro Tanaka bounced back from a couple bad starts to the end the season with another postseason gem, giving up one run — via the #obligatoryhomer — in five innings. He now owns a 1.50 playoff ERA, the fifth-lowest by any pitcher with at least five playoff starts.

Lowest Postseason ERA (min. 5 Starts)

ERA

Games

Sandy Koufax

0.95

8

Christy Mathewson

0.97

11

Eddie Plank

1.32

7

Bill Hallahan

1.36

7

Masahiro Tanaka

1.50

5

Nightmare on River Avenue
There really are no words that can capture the utter humiliation, indescribable embarrassment and overwhelming atrocity that was Game 3 in the Bronx on Monday night. Mike did an excellent job summing up the terrible managerial mistakes from the 16-1 loss, I’ll just present here the cold hard ugly facts.

15-run loss is the largest margin of defeat in postseason game in franchise history

It is also the most lopsided loss for any team in a postseason game at home

16 runs allowed are the most ever by a Yankee team in a postseason game

16 runs allowed are the most ever in postseason game for any team that gave up no more than one homer

Austin Romine is first catcher in MLB history to pitch in a postseason game; the only other position player to do it was Blue Jays infielder Cliff Pennington in the 2015 ALCS Game 5 against the Royals

Summing up the pitching mess … Yankees are first team in Major-League history to give up at least 16 runs, 18 hits and eight walks in a postseason game

And mercifully, we close this section with our #NotFunFact of the series, awarded to Luis Severino:

Luis Severino: 1st pitcher in Yankees history to allow 6+ Runs and 7+ Hits in an outing of 3 IP or fewer in postseason game at Yankee Stadium.

End of the Chase For 28
It’s a game of inches, and the Yankees were just a few short in Tuesday night’s 4-3 loss. Folks, I hope you’re sitting down for this series-ending Obscure Yankeemetric … It was the 14th time the Yankees have been eliminated from the postseason at home, but the first time it happened in a one-run game at the Stadium with the winning run on base when the game ended. Welp.

(Newsday)

For the second straight night, Yankees found themselves in early hole, after CC Sabathia allowed three runs in the first three innings, a rare mediocre outing for him given his postseason track record in the Bronx. This was his eighth playoff start at home as a Yankee, and the first one that he gave up more than two runs. His 1.61 ERA in his previous seven home postseason starts was the second-best by any Yankee (min. 4 starts).

Zach Britton coughed up the fourth run via a 338-foot homer by Christian Vazquez that barely cleared the short porch in right field. It was the first homer Britton has allowed to a No. 9 batter in his career. And, according to ESPN’s home run tracking system, it would not have been a home run at any of the other 29 ballparks. A true ‘Yankee Stadium Special’, served up at the worst possible moment:

In a season where #toomanyhomers was a nightly trend on Yankees twitter, the team failed to go deep in the fateful final two games. The only other time this season the Bombers were homerless in back-to-back games in the Bronx was April 7 and 8 against the Orioles, the fifth and sixth home games of the season. That’s baseball, Suzyn.

The Yankees dropped Kyle Higashioka and Tyler Wade from their Wild Card Game roster and added Sabathia and Tarpley. They’re carrying four starters, eight relievers, and a four-man bench. Normally, eight relievers in a postseason series is overkill, especially since they’re not going to play more than two days in a row. Yanks vs. Sox games tend to get wild though. The extra reliever could come in handy.

The five-man bench: Gardner, Hechavarria, Romine, and Walker. It’s worth noting Gardner (left field), Hechavarria (third base), and Walker (first base) all came in for defense in the late innings of the Wild Card Game. I wonder if that will continue to be the case going forward. I guess it depends on the score. The Yankees might hold Gardner back for a pinch-running situation in a close game. We’ll see.

Middle relief has been a season-long problem for the Red Sox and they’re going to try to patch that up with Rodriguez this postseason. Also, Eovaldi was told to prepare to pitch in relief in Game One. Wright is a starter by trade as well. Red Sox manager Alex Cora was the Astros bench coach last year, when they expertly used starters like Lance McCullers, Brad Peacock, and Charlie Morton in relief in the postseason. I suspect he’ll look to do the same with the Red Sox this year.

ALDS Game One begins tonight at 7:30pm ET. As expected, the Yankees and Red Sox games drew the primetime slots. All five ALDS games will begin somewhere between 7:30pm ET and 8:10pm ET. The entire series will be broadcast on TBS.

For all intents and purposes, the AL East race ended in early August. The Yankees went up to Boston, got swept in four games — they were outscored 28-13 in the four games — and fell 9.5 games behind the Red Sox. That was it. The Yankees never again drew closer than six games behind Boston. The Red Sox took care of business that series and were able to coast the rest of the way.

Starting tomorrow though, the slate will be wiped clean, and the Yankees and Red Sox will go into the ALDS on a level playing field. No deficit to make up in the standings. First to three wins moves on to the ALCS. Given how close these teams usually play — even with that four-game sweep, the Red Sox only won the season series 10-9 — it would not surprise me at all if the ALDS goes the full five games.

The Yankees team going into the ALDS is much different than the Yankees team that was swept in that four-game series in August. The Yankees went into that series shorthanded. I’m not making excuses. The Yankees had enough talent to win and didn’t do it. They played terribly. But the fact of the matter is they were not at full strength. Consider:

Aaron Judge had just been placed on the disabled list with his wrist fracture.

Gary Sanchez was on the disabled list with his second groin strain.

J.A. Happ was on the disabled list with hand, foot, and mouth disease.

Given Luis Severino’s second half struggles, you could argue the Yankees went into that series without their best starting pitcher. (Chance Adams had to fill in, which he did admirably.) The Yankees definitely went into that series without their best hitter. And while Sanchez had a terrible season, he tends to rake in Fenway Park, and the Yankees were without him as well.

When the ALDS opens tomorrow night, the Yankees will have Judge and Sanchez in the lineup, and chances are Happ will be on the mound in Game One. Furthermore, Andrew McCutchen and Luke Voit will be in the lineup. McCutchen was not a Yankees when these two clubs met in August. Voit was a Yankee and he did appear in two games in that series, but he was still Luke Voit and not American Hero Luke Voit at the time.

The Red Sox have a left-handed heavy pitching staff — Chris Sale and David Price are starting Games One and Two, the club announced — and the Yankees will now have four premium righty bats in the lineup that they did not have in August. Three if you’re really down on Sanchez. McCutchen replaces Brett Gardner, Judge replaces the Neil Walker/Shane Robertson platoon, and Voit replaces Greg Bird. Considerable upgrades all around.

I should note this goes beyond platoon matchups as well. McCutchen, Judge, and Voit all mash left-handed pitchers — Sanchez does as well, he had a .229/.354/.518 (136 wRC+) line against southpaws this season — but they’re also better against righties than the guys they replaced. McCutchen’s a much better hitter than Gardner. An inferior defender? Yes, but the decline in defense is more than made up by the increase in offense. Going from Walker/Robinson and Bird to Judge and Voit is just a massive upgrade. Massive.

The Yankees will also have Happ on the mound, presumably in Game One but also possibly in Game Two. Happ is one of the few starting pitchers who consistently pitched well against the Red Sox this year. Just last week he carved them up for five innings before giving up what amounted to a garbage time grand slam to Steve Pearce in the sixth inning. Happ made four starts against Boston this year and three times he allowed no more than one earned run.

Four times in six September games the Yankees beat the Red Sox, and while that feels good, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. The BoSox had nothing on the line in any of those games, especially in that final weekend, and they never really seemed to give the Yankees (or anyone) their best effort in September. They earned that. They had a huge division lead and were able to rest their regulars and audition others for the postseason roster down the stretch.

These two teams last played a meaningful series in August, in that four-game sweep, and the team the Yankees take into the ALDS is going to look much different than the team they sent to Fenway Park in August. McCutchen and Voit are big upgrades over Gardner and Voit, Happ is healthy, Judge is healthy, and Sanchez is healthy too. Right now, the Yankees match up better against the Red Sox than they did at any other point in 2018.

Notably absent: Greg Bird, CC Sabathia, and Stephen Tarpley. Sabathia being excluded from the roster isn’t a surprise. At this point, he’s not one of the ten best pitchers on the staff, especially when you consider he’d have to pitch in an unfamiliar relief role. Tarpley was said to be in the mix for a bullpen spot. Ultimately, the A’s only have one hitter (Olson) who needs a left-on-left specialist, and he’d be pinch-hit for instantly by Canha, a lefty crusher. Tarpley didn’t have much of a purpose.

As for Bird, I am a bit surprised he’s not on the Wild Card Game roster only because the Yankees love him. That said, he hasn’t hit at all this season, and he offers no defensive versatility or baserunning value. His only role would be as a pinch-hitting option who could maybe park one in the short porch, and who’s getting lifted for a pinch-hitter? No one in the starting lineup. The Yankees opted for Wade (pinch-runner) and Hechavarria (Andujar’s defensive caddy) over Bird. Can’t blame them.

The Athletics are really going all in on the bullpen game, huh? Jackson is the only actual starting pitcher on the roster and I assume he is their emergency extra innings guy. Their bench is sneaky good. Canha crushes lefties and Joyce is a fine lefty platoon bat who could take aim at the right field porch. Pinder, a right-handed hitter, hit 13 homers with a 111 wRC+ as a part-timer this year, and he played every position other than pitcher and catcher. A’s manager Bob Melvin could get creative with his bench.

Severino and Hendriks (an opener) are starting the Wild Card Game tonight. The game is scheduled to begin a little after 8pm ET and it’ll be broadcast on TBS. Winner moves on to play the Red Sox in the ALDS. Loser goes home.